A British Business

8th June 2020

Hi everyone, welcome back to another blog! Not to be all me-me-me, but we wanted to talk more about… well, us. In particular, about us being a British Business.

We’re a British business, printing and manufacturing licensed William Morris designs in the UK. It’s important to us because Britain used to be the heart of the textile industry. Creating the business 26 years ago, it was always something we wanted to achieve. The William Morris designs were always created for manufacture and print in England so we wanted to be true to that. It also gives us a lot of control because we always make sure quality is upheld.

Merton Abbey

Morris printed in England actually did you know? At Merton Abbey in London, on the River Wandle, Morris pushed back towards traditional printing methods. He didn’t want to just accept Victorian Industrialisation. Here, he perfected the Indigo Dye Technique. Morris moved into Merton Abbey in June 1881, and with the 7 acres outbuildings, turned it into an idealised hub of craftsmanship. Textile printing, stained glass making, tapestry, carpet-weaving all took place here.

He employed former Spitalfields silk weavers at Merton Abbey to produce hand-woven textiles. The plants grown in the gardens were used for the dye and water from the river was used to dye and rinse fabric making it a perfect location for a print works.

Back to us…

We wanted to carry on printing his beautiful designs in the UK – and manufacturing it too. We’re not going to lie about it – manufacturing abroad is far cheaper and it’s why many businesses move their print and manufacturing needs overseas. But, it does mean that you don’t have the control on both quality and the way that staff are treated. We believe wholeheartedly in ensuring that the people creating our products should be treated fairly. You can’t guarantee that if you can’t see that. We’re big fans of transparency in this. Ultimately, we would prefer a higher price point in response to controlling the fact those creating our beautiful products are receiving good wages and the quality of our products is high.

If you ever also want to read our environmental promise, you can absolutely do that here – again, we want to give you transparency with your purchase!

We thought you might like this YouTube video of our Pimpernel Cream William Morris fabric being printed! There’s a few others on the channel if you’re interested, it’s always interesting to see how things are made isn’t it.

Hopefully this gave you more insight into who we are and why we’re such a proud British business! If you want to support us on social media, we’d love to see you and have a chat!

Willow Bough Blue is back in stock! ✨ Year-round this design is an incredibly popular one, isn’t it incredible that it was designed by William Morris in 1887 and remains so timeless all these years later! 🩶
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#williammorris #morris #willowbough #design #floraldesign #williammorrisdesign #preraphaelites #victoriandesign

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A British Business

Merton Abbey

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